


Temptation Waits

by glassonion_archivist



Category: Firefly
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2004-04-20
Updated: 2004-04-20
Packaged: 2019-06-19 11:44:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 632
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15509187
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/glassonion_archivist/pseuds/glassonion_archivist
Summary: River can't sleep.





	Temptation Waits

**Author's Note:**

> Note from alice ttlg, the archivist: this story was originally archived at [Glass Onion](http://fanlore.org/wiki/The_Glass_Onion), and was moved to the AO3 as part of the Open Doors project. I tried to reach out to all creators about the move and posted announcements, but may not have reached everyone. If you are the creator and would like to claim this work, please contact me using the e-mail address on [Glass Onion’s collection profile](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/glassonion/profile).
> 
>  **Author's notes:** Thanks to Jen, Dot, Meg and Pete'n'Melissa. Written for 15minuteficlets. The word was chilling.

  
Author's notes: Thanks to Jen, Dot, Meg and Pete'n'Melissa. Written for 15minuteficlets. The word was chilling.  


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Temptation Waits

 

 

## Temptation Waits

### by Victoria P.

"That girl ain't right." 

"Yes, Jayne, we know." 

"Alls I'm sayin' is, that girl ain't right. She knows things she ain't supposed to know." 

"Downright chilling," Mal agreed absently, wondering why they were having this conversation yet again. 

Much, much later, when he woke to her sitting on the foot of his bed, staring at him, her face a pale blur in the darkness of his room, Mal realized how appropriate his choice of words had been. He shivered at the knowing way she watched him. 

"Go back to your room, River." 

"Can't." 

He sat up, thankful he'd fallen asleep half-dressed. 

"Clothes can't protect you," she said, and he started. "It's too cold out there. But I wish I could float in space without a suit. Dance like a star." 

"You'd make a pretty star," he replied, surprised at how easily the words slipped off his tongue. "Now go on back to your room. It's time for sleeping." 

"Serenity never sleeps." 

"Well, no, no she don't. But you ain't Serenity, River. That was just a ploy, remember?" 

"I _can't_. Simon and Kaylee-- I can _hear_ them." 

'Oh.' "Oh." 

"Serenity feels them. _I_ feel them. I want--" She leaned forward and he figured out just in time what she was going to do, and turned his head, her lips landing on his jaw instead of his mouth. 

He scrambled off the bed. "River, that's just a bad idea." 

"I'm not her," River said, nodding. "I know. But I can be Serenity. And you could--" She crawled toward him, pale, toned legs and dainty feet exposed by the short nightshirt she wore. "I can _feel_ them," she repeated, frustration apparent in her voice, tension and lust written in the lines of her body. 

He leaned back against the wall, cornered. 'Think. Think real hard, Malcolm Reynolds, because she's a lot smarter than you'll ever be.' 

She rose off the bed, pressed her soft, curved body against him, and he remembered the last time a woman tried to seduce him in here, and the shepherd's warning of a special hell. 

He _really_ didn't want to think about what Book would say if he could see them now. 

"River--" 

"Shh, it's all right." She put a finger to his lips to silence him, and followed it with her mouth, tasting of apples, lust, fear. 

He remained still, unresponsive for a moment, though it would be so gorram easy to just lean in and-- 

He cut off that line of thought and grabbed her shoulders, pushing her away. She stumbled back and sprawled onto the bed, legs parted, giving him a view only a doctor or a lover should have. 

"Go back to your room," he snapped, using the tone even the rawest, most frightened recruits responded to. 

She pouted but got up and walked to the steps. Just before she disappeared, she turned back to him, eyes like stars in that pale face, hair like the sea of night, and said, "I know you wanted to, just for a second. I'll be back." 

And then she was gone. 

Mal slumped down onto the bed, rubbing his forehead. He didn't sleep, and when he found his hand wandering beneath the waistband of his pants, River's face behind his eyelids, he went up to the bridge and spent the night there, watching the sky. 

end

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Fandom:  Firefly   
Title:   **Temptation Waits**   
Author:   **Victoria P.**   [email]   [[website]](http://www.unfitforsociety.net/musesfool)   
Details:   **Standalone**  |  **PG**  |  **3k**  |  **04/20/04**   
Summary:  River can't sleep.   
Notes:  Thanks to Jen, Dot, Meg and Pete'n'Melissa. Written for 15minuteficlets. The word was chilling.   
Disclaimer/Other:  Joss's and Fox's, not mine.   
Archive: Lists, Achromatic.   
Feedback: Is always lovely.   
  



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